County utilities dept. deals with leak in Burdett

By Justin Seward

Commentator/Courier

The County of 40 Mile’s utilities supervisor Dave Harrison provided an update to council with his September/October utilities report on Nov. 8.

Harrison said September began with a leak in Burdett, on the line running from to the Vos Farm. The leak was discovered while reading meters at the end of August. It was determined that the tee to the old potato shed located on block 4/5 was made of steel and corroded away.
The reservoirs east of town were getting low and filled in September.
Treated sewage samples were collected at the lagoon and failed again. Water levels are low enough that pumping did not need to occur this fall and the site was winterized in early November.
For the Burdett pump station, it needed significant work done in October after the storm which caused extensive power outages and was restored one phase at a time. The emergency pumping unit ran for almost 24 hours until the alternator failed and it was discovered the problem was a faulty oil pressure switch.
Problems were being experienced around the same time with two treated water pumps. One pump needed a new starter and a second required a new coil and breaker.